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Based on figures released by Israel, a minimum of 98 detainees from Palestine have died while in custody since October 2023. An advocacy organization located in Israel has stated that the actual figure is probably substantially larger, because of many of disappeared detainees originating in Gaza.

Report Findings

An updated study recorded casualties attributed to brutality, failure to provide medical care, and inadequate nutrition. Investigators employed transparency petitions, forensic reports, and discussions with lawyers, advocates, next of kin, and eyewitnesses.

Government bodies disclosed detailed statistics limited to the first eight months of the war. During this time, official figures show an record casualty rate among detained Palestinians, equating to one death every four days.

Latest Data

Israeli defense forces most recently revised records on detention fatalities for May 2024, and correctional authorities during September 2024. Researchers identified another 35 deaths in detention after these timeframes and confirmed them with Israeli authorities.

Although the total number of casualties recorded being significantly higher than earlier projections, it almost certainly does not reflect the entire scope of Palestinian casualties, as stated by the leader of the prisoner monitoring division.

“Although we are presenting proof for a greater figure of fatalities than previously reported, this is an incomplete account,” he said. “We are confident that there are yet people who perished in detention that we don’t know about.”

Civilian Casualties

Confidential Israeli data suggests that the largest portion of incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza who perished in prison were ordinary citizens, per a parallel investigation.

By May of the current year, a defense forces registry following all fighters in Gaza, a roster of over 47,000 named individuals, listed just 21 casualties in detention. By that date, 65 individuals from Palestine from Gaza had perished in prison.

Detention Conditions

Physical violence, mistreatment, and additional maltreatment of Palestinian individuals is now standard practice across Israel’s jail system throughout 24 months of conflict. Top government figures have publicly acknowledged starvation rations and an subterranean prison detaining detainees who never see daylight.

Existing and previous inmates and whistleblowers from the defense forces have collectively claimed routine infractions of international law.

Organized Maltreatment

The institutionalised cruelty came with a disturbing rise in fatalities recorded across a minimum of 12 prison sites in Israel. In the decade prior to the conflict, there were typically several deaths a year.

“This isn’t just an individual case sporadically. It is widespread and it is expected to endure,” a spokesperson said, partly because there is a climate of virtual exemption from consequences for killing and mistreating detainees.

Only a single instance of attacking inmates has come to trial, with the soldier sentenced to half a year. An attempt to prosecute other suspects over a vicious assault featuring abuse led to public rallies and the arrest of Israel’s top military lawyer, with the accused individuals now demanding that charges against them are dropped.

Absence of Consequences

“In spite of this large quantity of deaths, throughout the conflict no one has been arrested,” the representative stated. “There exist no indictments over any death.

“As long as these policies continue to be enforced, each Palestinian individual in detention is in danger, also the those in good health, including the youth who have no underlying conditions.”

Prominent Examples

Some deaths in custody have been high profile, such as a 50-year-old healthcare leader who lost his life in prison after 120 days in custody.

An inmate held with the deceased reported that he was brought to the yard by correctional officers immediately preceding his passing, clearly wounded and unclothed from the waist down. His body remains unreleased to Gaza.

Other prisoners who perished in confinement by Israeli authorities remain anonymous. Correctional authorities and military gave investigators with the figure of deaths in detention, and minimal other details for example the facility where they died, but not the detainees’ identities.

Documentation Problems

For 21 instances, primarily individuals from Gaza, researchers were not able to connect the minimal data given by authorities to a death registered by human rights groups, either through accounts from former inmates or reporting in the press.

The detainees’ families might not have learned about their loved ones’ deaths as well, as Israel has impeded efforts to monitor Palestinians it is confining. Over half a year at the beginning of the hostilities, the Israeli military refused to supply basic information about the status of many of people held in Gaza, in effect enacting a practice of unacknowledged detention, as stated by the advocacy organization.

Restricted Access

Beginning last May, government bodies have provided an email address for inquiries about Palestinians from Gaza, but this has resulted in merely a partial and limited enhancement. Researchers noted|observed|commented on